Many vehicles are equipped with electronic equipments giving the possibility of many functions. For example, safety equipments such as signaling, traction control, maintenance management systems, or further network equipments, are frequently mounted on many types of vehicles. Other electronic equipment gives the possibility of functions for communication, optimization of the performance and of the energy consumption of the vehicles, or further for monitoring proper operation of the latter.
Electronic equipment of the aforementioned types generally comprises a memory on which are stored data, and in particular software instructions which are applied by a controller for executing said functions. Such software instructions provide the advantage of being able to be modified in order to improve the operation of the equipment or for adapting it to a modification of the vehicle, for example if other apparatuses with which the equipment is in interaction are mounted on the vehicle. Thus, in most cases, it is not necessary to modify the actual piece of equipment, but only adapt the software instructions. Such a modification of the software instructions is called “updating”.
However, the updating of the apparatus generally requires the intervention of a specialized technician. Thus, either the technician has to move to the location where the vehicle is found, or the vehicle has to be immobilized at the depot so that the technician carries out the updating. The updating of a large number of vehicles, for example a fleet of vehicles managed by a public transport company or a fleet of trains, is therefore long. Further, it involves a significant loss in availability of the relevant vehicles, which are generally immobilized for updating during the day, during the usual working hours of the technician.
Further, a sometimes quite long period may exist during which several versions of the same software instructions coexist, the time for the technician(s) for completing the updating on the whole fleet, which adds complexities to the management of the fleet by the operator.